


Though the Mountain is Tall

by Moonsheen



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Cyborgs, Gen, Omnics, Possibly Pre-Slash, Recovery, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-21
Updated: 2017-08-21
Packaged: 2018-12-18 01:10:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11863512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonsheen/pseuds/Moonsheen
Summary: Genji adjusts to life in Nepal. Genji adjusts to Tekhartha Zenyatta.





	Though the Mountain is Tall

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short vignette about Genji and the Shambali. I like omnics. In other news, grass is green, and dogs bark.

The townspeople did not seem to mind that the omnics had taken residence in the old temple. Far from it, they considered them a fond curiosity. Genji wondered at it, as he set his meager belongings out in the apartment he rented overlooking the town square. Back in Japan, omnics had never been wholly unwelcome, their services too valuable to the standing workforce, but the idea of them owning property -- let alone taking it off the hands of a whole mountain community -- still seemed outrageous to him. Wasn't anyone upset? When he asked this question, his new landlady laughed.

"Well, it's not like anyone was using it," she said, eyeing Genji from head to toe with neither judgement nor wariness. He wouldn't be sure for weeks if she thought him an omnic or a human. He'd later learn the bowl of peaches on his bureau had given him away. "They closed it after the earthquake. The whole interior collapsed. Not exactly a place for human monks to find enlightenment -- unless it's down in the ravine.  _ Is  _ it?"

It wasn't, to Genji's understanding, but Genji had only just come to the mountain and Master Zenyatta had yet to invite him to the inner sanctum.

"Well, if you ever get a look, let me know," she said, "and ask them to tip their satellite dish a little to the left. Our reception's been fuzzy lately."

It turned out, the Shambali actually seldom bothered the village that sat at the base of the temple, and the village didn't bother the Shambali at the top of the mountain. It worked for all parties. The omnics didn't have much need for food or water, only the occasional supplies for the temple repairs, which could never quite be done. For these transactions, the temple offered credits, of which it had some funds -- donations from the faithful, omnics who could take payment, humans who sympathized -- but, more importantly, they offered a very particular service.

"...so the temple powers the village," said Genji. "You built your own generator."

"An earthly necessity," admitted Zenyatta, who had come down from the temple, both to see Genji, and, as it happened, to speak with the town council and inform them that a recent storm had knocked the main dish out of alignment. It would take a few days to repair it, but there was no need to fear. "Our minds may extend far past the temple walls, but our bodies do still require a regular charge. If our kind hosts can enjoy it as well, it is to the benefit of all."

"Do they pay you?" asked Genji, remembering the days when he would go door to door to demand money from his father's 'clients', back in another life.

"Their continued good will is reward enough for us," said Zenyatta, with surprising ease, and that explained the village's easygoing attitude towards the Shambali on a whole.

 

Master Zenyatta was one of the more sociable of the Shambali. Genji found out from how the councilman greeted him: respectful but familiar. Even prior to Genji's arrival, he had come to village once or twice a month, to speak for the temple's needs but also to loiter in the village center. He had become a particular curiosity among the village children. They often skipped out early from school to come see him.

"Are you cold?" asked a little boy, who was at that time bundled up in a coat and at least three scarves.

"My sensors tell me the temperature is below freezing," answered Zenyatta, serenely. He flashed said sensors in a little wave sequence. The kids leaned in and oo'd at the lights.

"Are YOU cold?" the same boy asked Genji. Genji couldn't help but join the omnic in his odd vigil, which didn't seem for any religious purpose he could figure.

"Only around my eyes," answered Genji, truthfully. Actually, he liked the mountain temperatures. It put far less strain on his exosuit's cooling systems. It left him feeling light and better hydrated.

"Omnics have eyes?" asked a little girl. "Like,  _ eyeball  _ eyes?"

"They don't," said Genji, who was at this time well used to the awkward misunderstandings his appearance earned him, "but I do."

Another girl asked the inevitable question: "So, what are you?"

Genji gave the inevitable answer: "I am a cyborg."

His translation software failed him. The word didn’t parse properly into Nepali from either Japanese or English. This earned him a blank look. He tried again, this time more literally, so his programs could keep up: “I am a man with machine parts.”

“Oh, a  _ cyborg _ !” The children were no strangers to online cartoons. "Cool!"

"How much of you is robot?"

"Do you have rockets?"

"Can you jump really, really high?"

"Do you get internet in your face?!"

All at the exact same time.

  
  


"It would seem I have inadvertently led a horde to your doorstep," said Zenyatta, later that evening, by way of apology, as he rung water out of his sash from the day's snowfall. "I hope I have not made you uncomfortable, Genji."

They sat together in Genji's apartment. Which had by that time gained a carpet and a small desk with a photo stand.

"There is a time when the attention would have bothered me," admitted Genji, toweling down his outer armor. He had demonstrated some of his reflexes by allowing the children to assemble a firing squad of snowballs. Not a single one had landed, but they had spattered rather magnificently with each sword form.

"And now?"

That afternoon one of the children had slid a drawing under his door. 'Thank you green cyborg ninja!!'

"Being a curiosity has its benefits," said Genji. 


End file.
